Anti-Semitism

Dracula: Not a jewWhile it's true that an illegal matzo factory was recently busted in New York, it's not true that, as the old Blood Libel myth goes, Jews have baked unleavened bread (or ever cooked anything, for that matter) with human blood. In fact, Jews are not the only people who have been accused of this crime. We asked David Biale, professor and author of the recent book, Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians, to weigh in on the subject.

The blood libel is exactly that: a libel (i.e. a false accusation). The idea that some group you don't like steals your blood is a very widespread one. It first appears aimed against Christians in antiquity, who were thought, because of the Eucharist, to actually kill children and drink their blood. In the thirteenth century, it was aimed against the Jews. But as recently as the 1980s, there were accusations that child care workers engaged in Satanic rituals of this sort and a number of people drew long prison sentences.

To this day, stories of the Jewish Blood Libel are widely printed in Muslim countries, and are kept circulating around the world in part due to the continuing translation, publication, and sale of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Snopes debunks the myth, and offers samples from a recent, government-approved, Saudi Arabian article.

Previously: Jews Are Not a Tribe

It has become so routine as to be absolutely predictable. I will be having coffee with a friend who I went to Solomon Schechter with, or sitting at a bar with a friend I met at Hillel in college. Sometimes it’s people who graduated from Orthodox high school with me, or friends from my high school Israel trip, or people from my shul, or the minyan I went to growing up. And after I gloss over my situation (Typically: “I like him, but he doesn’t speak Aramaic…” or “I haven’t quite managed to tell him that I lay tefillin yet…”) I hear about whoever my friends are dating. Guys and girls who seem to be great, and who are, almost inevitably, not Jewish.
His Name is Christopher: but omg, he's SO cute!

Most of the time, when my friends tell me this, they say it in a cringing manner, waiting for me to burst into hysterics, to decry the sad fate of the Jewish people, to comdemn them and their deviant relationships. But generally, I just nod and open my mouth to ask questions.

I have seen all kinds of reactions to inderdating, from violent outbursts to ignoring the situation completely. People seem to have pretty strong opinions on how one should respond, but I think it’s worth it to point out that it’s unlikely most responses will have any effect at all. People have a tendency to date whoever they want, regardless of how their parents, siblings and friends react. Think of your cousin Sally’s awful boyfriend Jake, who chews with his mouth open and is in his sixth year of an undergraduate degree in Native American storytelling at Touchy Feely University. Sally knows everyone hates Jake, but she doesn’t care. She likes him (who knows why) and everyone just has to suffer through Thanksgiving until she comes to her senses and dumps his ass for Clyde who works in finance and has excellent personal hygiene.

Instead of expressing my disapproval, I have three questions I like to ask.
1) Do you think he/she would be willing to convert?
2) Do you know how you’d want to raise the kids?
3) How do both sets of parents feel about it?

As far as I’m concerned, if the person in question has answers to these questions, then I’m not so worried. People who have thought about these things, and are consciously trying to come to some solution are generally not the people who we have to worry about. That is to say, my girlfriend who just told me her new boyfriend is half Italian half Phillipino, and then immediately said, “But I know I’m raising my kids Jewish, and soon I’m going to start talking to him about conversion,” is not someone I have to be hugely worried about. Do I wish she’d found a nice Jewish fella? Sure. But then, I have some experience with how challenging that search can be, and if her identity as a Jew is firmly in place I think she’s doing okay. Once she sets a wedding date and is picking out bridesmaid dresses then of course I’ll have a lot more questions, but I think over-reacting when we come across interdating is only going to push us deeper into the problem and drive people away.

It’s important to get people to ask questions and think seriously about their own identity, and how they feel about having children who are Jewish. Those who ignore the problem out of dicomfort are doing just as much of a disservice as those who blow up and talk about how interdating is finishing the Nazis work. We DO need to talk about this stuff. But asking people to examine the real effects the decision will have without threatening them seems like the best way of dealing with the situation.

Happy Jewish Family?: could be!Think it's cute to call someone a "Member of the Tribe"? Sure, it turns "otherness" into exclusivity, but it's also a misnomer. In fact, it can be downright destructive. Case in point: When I worked as a docent at the Museum of Tolerance (MOT again, OMG!), I repeatedly found myself arguing whether or not Jews are a "bloodline" with tourists from Arkansas, Utah, Austria...you name it.

"Actually," I'd interject, as yet another vocal visitor explained to his or her compatriots that Jews were a race, "Judaism is not a race. It's a religion. You know, like Christianity, or Sikhism."

And without fail, I'd find myself in the midst of a totally futile debate about race, bloodlines, and tribes.

"It's a bloodline," my interlocutor would almost always declare, not hearing a word I'd said. "They're a tribe. A race."

Explaining the differences between race, ethnicity, religion, and culture was lost on these particular visitors. What wasn't lost on me, though, was the problematic nature of a seemingly harmless nickname. The Tribe. It made my skin crawl, because it misrepresented us so enormously.

The concept of a Jewish bloodline was actually exploited and manipulated by the Nazis, who went to great lengths to define Jews first and foremost as an impure, genetically inferior race.

The truth, as Douglas Rushkoff explained it, is that "Jews are not a tribe but an amalgamation of tribes around a single premise: that human beings have a role." Get it? Jews originated as a bunch of people from different tribes who came together around a set of ideas. It's why people can convert to Judaism, but can't convert to "Asianness" or "Blackness." I can go from Jewish to Sikh, like my pal Gurudhan Khalsa did, but I'll never be Latina.

So the next time someone asks you if you're a "MOT," tell them "No, but I'm Jewish."

Jewish-German community leaders are pissed.

A smoking ban just went into effect in Germany and opponents of said ban have been selling t-shirts online that feature the ol' Judenstern we had to wear back in the day. Only, instead of "Jude", the star on the t-shirts said "Raucher" (smoker), to suggest that discrimination against smokers is not unlike anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany.

Judenstern: Way to bring up old shit.The shirts went on sale online in the days before the smoking ban in ten out of Germany's sixteen states, which went into effect on New Year's Day. Dennis Kramer of DPM, the marketers behind the shirt said citizens needed to be aware of "disgraceful discrimination against smokers" in bars and restaurants and called the shirts "the most aggressive smokers' resistance shirt available" but added he only "wanted to show that smokers are being discriminated against in bars". The website has since been shut down, but a couple of websites seem to still be selling the shirts.

Germany's Central Council of Jews called the t-shirts "crude, brainless and tasteless" and added that anyone who "compares the plight of the Jews during the Third Reich to smokers who are thought to be discriminated against" to be people who have learned "absolutely nothing". Dieter Graumann, the deputy president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said, "This is an absolute abuse of the Jewish genocide... It is a scandal to exploit the murder of the Jews in order to symbolize the people's desire to smoke." But, it might be more than just a matter of taste-- In Itzehoe, where DPM is based, prosecutors confirmed a formal investigation has been launched to establish whether they could prosecute, being that the display of Nazi symbols is prohibited under German law. Obviously.

 

Greetings From Moldova: where Jesus was a communist carpenter Greetings from Moldova! You know, the former Soviet state bordered by Ukraine and Romania, whose special characteristics include being the poorest nation in Europe, as well as the first former Soviet state to elect a Communist as its president! It's hard to believe that a country where 98% of the population weighs in as Eastern Orthodox voted President Vladimir Voronin -- a Communist -- into office, but they did, and now priests, nuns, and assorted other believers are being intimidated and harassed by secret police.

Meanwhile, Christians in India aren't faring much better, what with increasing attacks by fundamentalist, nationalist religious groups such as radical Hindus and "anti-Christian fanatics."

And here in the U.S., a Burmese Christian refugee who gained asylum this past August is settling into his new life on the East Coast, while religious persecution in his homeland continues on.

(I'm an oft-multi-tasking dumb-ass, and failed to save this post, written prior to Shabbes, properly, so we'll operate in the better-late-than-ever/glad-I-decided-to-work-on-Sunday mindset, yes? Great. In any case, I beg your pardon.)

In November, I remember reading about a Jewish cemetery near Baltimore getting vandalized and thinking, "What if surviving relatives can't afford to restore the headstones?" and only paragraphs later reading a spokesperson's statement:

For gravestones that cannot be traced to a family, Mr. Cohn said the congregation will likely absorb the cost of repair, which he said will be about $125 per stone. He said the cemetery – which likely dates back to the mid-19th century, according to the congregation—is not insured for vandalism, and perpetual care only covers the upkeep of the grounds.

“Morally and ethically, it’s our responsibility. But legally, it’s not. Families will have to pay for it, and we feel very, very bad about this,” said Mr. Cohn, who noted that the congregation plans to install high-intensity lighting at the cemetery. “It will cost us, it will cost the families, and we’ll absorb what we can. But it’s limited. Where are the funds? It’s not like, bingo, we have the funds.”

If you want to fuck with me: then fuck with me. Not dead people.On Jan 1st, a Jewish cemetery back east in New Brunswick, NJ was vandalized, and I quickly found mention of a restoration fund in an article reporting the arrest of the teenagers responsible for the damage.

About a week ago, here in Chicago where I live, someone, or a group of someones probably, broke onto the grounds of Westlawn Jewish cemetery and vandalized gravestones with swastikas, line-slashed Magen David symbols, threats, slogans... the usual hate graffiti schtick.

Anyway, the price tag on getting things back in order is estimated to be between $100,000 and $150,000 and thought there are some unclear bits of information floating around here, it seems that the financial responsibility is falling upon surviving families. I haven't heard anything official from the JUF, as far as funds being used to offset their expenses, but I'm sure it's either forthcoming, or I've just yet to track it down. In any case, the cost is going to be considerable, every bit will surely count, and my feeling is that because hate against some of us is hate against all of us, and so responsibility also falls equally.

I'm sure earmarked donations would be welcome here:

Westlawn Cemetery and Mausoleum (Vicki Pulido, General Manager), 7801 W. Montrose Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60706
(773) 625-8600

 

I’ve never been a big fan of the OnFaith series that Newsweek does because the commentaries usually seem a bit obvious to me, but while I was in Dublin I was pointed to this inflammatory piece by Arun Gadhi, Mohandas’s grandson, now president and co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, at the University of Rochester in New York.
Arun Gandhi: no more Mr. Nice Guy

Arun Gandhi wrote:

Jewish Identity Can't Depend on Violence

Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the holocaust experience -- a German burden that the Jews have not been able to shed. It is a very good example of a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends. The holocaust was the result of the warped mind of an individual who was able to influence his followers into doing something dreadful. But, it seems to me the Jews today not only want the Germans to feel guilty but the whole world must regret what happened to the Jews. The world did feel sorry for the episode but when an individual or a nation refuses to forgive and move on the regret turns into anger.

The Jewish identity in the future appears bleak. Any nation that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead and, especially a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured by weapons and bombs. In Tel Aviv in 2004 I had the opportunity to speak to some Members of Parliament and Peace activists all of whom argued that the wall and the military build-up was necessary to protect the nation and the people. In other words, I asked, you believe that you can create a snake pit -- with many deadly snakes in it -- and expect to live in the pit secure and alive? What do you mean? they countered. Well, with your superior weapons and armaments and your attitude towards your neighbors would it not be right to say that you are creating a snake pit? How can anyone live peacefully in such an atmosphere? Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you? Can you not reach out and share your technological advancement with your neighbors and build a relationship?

Apparently, in the modern world, so determined to live by the bomb, this is an alien concept. You don't befriend anyone, you dominate them. We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.

Wanna guess how many comments there are on that post? Well over 400. And no, most of them aren’t full of joy and good tidings, if you know what I mean.

Gandhi and Arafit Sittin' in a Tree: H-A-T-I-N-G O-N I-S-R-A-E-L
So, Gandhi obviously wrote a lame little retraction:

My Apology for My Poorly Worded Post

I am writing to correct some regrettable mis-impressions I have given in my comments on my blog this week. While I stand behind my criticisms of the use of violence by recent Israeli governments -- and I have criticized the governments of the U.S., India and China in much the same way -- I want to correct statements that I made with insufficient care, and that have inflicted unnecessary hurt and caused anger.

I do not believe and should not have implied that the policies of the Israeli government are reflective of the views of all Jewish people. Indeed, many are as concerned as I am by the use of violence for state purposes, by Israel and many other governments.

I do believe that when a people hold on to historic grievances too firmly it can lead to bitterness and the loss of support from those who would be friends. But as I have noted in previous writings, the suffering of the Jewish people, particularly in the Holocaust, was historic in its proportions. While we must strive for a future of peace that rejects violence, it is also important not to forget the past, lest we fail to learn from it. Having learned from it, we can then find the path to peace and rejection of violence through forgiveness.

When I was in Israel for my junior year abroad I wrote a paper about Mohandas Gandhi’s general distaste for Israel. He was trying to make nice with Pakistan, which meant making nice with Islam, which meant he couldn’t be buddy-buddy with Israel. I have a certain level of respect for that, and I believed the writers and biographers who claimed that Gandhi sympathized with the Jews on an ideological level, but I have to say if that’s true he did a lousy job of making sure that message came through in his family and teachings.

Or maybe his grandson is just kind of a moron. Either way, I’m so sick if the confusion between “Israel” and “the Jews” that I could spit.

This photo: inspired Liverpool's RESPECTacles Project. In November, Liverpool was chosen to hold England's national Yom HaShoah observance, led by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. So Liverpool decided upon the RESPECTacles Project, a result of a collaboration between the Liverpool Town Hall and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

The project was inspired by a photo of a pile of damaged glasses worn by Shoah victims, which will be on display from January 21st through 26th in Liverpool. According to the Liverpool city website:

The unique project wants to put across the message that all individuals, particularly our young people, can play their part in genocide prevention simply by having, showing and insisting upon RESPECT for other human beings and for their differences.

Danny Radcliffe (Harry Potter) gave a pair, along with his costar Jason Issacs, who will be taking part in the services held on Yom HaShoah at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall on January 27th. Jerry Springer gave a pair, too, along with Yoko Ono, Stephen Fry, Paul O’Grady and Ronnie Corbett. (Elton John? I'm looking in your direction. Ahem. Glasses? Hi?)

On Liverpool City Council's website, there is still a call out for donations of glasses, sun and non. Eyewear donors are invited to label their glasses with a name in honor or memorial, as well. No specifics are given on donating by mail from stateside, but there is a bit of contact info (scroll about midway down) on their site, including a name and phone number, and I'm sure there's still time to coordinate something if you have old specs to give.  After Yom HaShoah, all glasses will be donated to Vision Aid Overseas, which aids people in obtaining much-needed prescription glasses in developing countries.

Betcha don't know what today is! Why, it's Purim of the Curtains, of course. Doy.

No, I'm serious.

Uh: Purim of what?!?!?!First called "Purim Vorhang" and celebrated in the middle of winter (on 22 Tevet), this Purim happened a few hundred years ago in the large Jewish Bohemian Ghetto in Prague. Like the Purim we are perhaps a bit more familiar with, it, too, commemorates the rather awe-some saving of Jews from their enemies. Here's the scoop, from Gershon Kranzler of Chabad:

Rudolph of Wenceslav, the governor of Bohemia, was one of those who resented the rise of Jewish fortunes during the reign of Ferdinand II. He considered it a personal affront when a man like the wealthy Jacob Schmieles of the Prague Ghetto was knighted and bore the noble title of Bassevi of Truenberg. But there was little he could do to the Jews of Prague, which in those days counted more than 1,000 people, many of them rich and influential merchants and bankers. For the memory and influence of Chief Rabbi Judah Loew, famous as the “Maharal,” was still felt among Jews and non-Jews. Thus, despite all efforts, the governor was not able to provoke any riots or pogroms of major proportion. But one day in the winter of 5383 (1623) Providence really seemed to play into his hands.

Among the treasure of his palace were heavy gold brocade curtains, artfully woven by a famous medieval master weaver from Brussels. They were considered invaluable, and the governor was responsible for them to the crown. All through the spring, summer and fall, till the middle of winter, they were stored away so that the sun and dust would not harm their precious texture. December came and Chamberlain Hradek, next to Rudolph of Wenceslav the mightiest man in all of Bohemia, gave orders to have all the velvet and brocade curtains and the Persian carpet taken out of storage to prepare the palace for the festival season. Everything proceeded in proper order, for each piece of the precious ornaments and furnishings had been carefully recorded and systematically stored away. At the bottom of the list were the famous gold brocade curtains of the stateroom. As usual they had been placed in the huge iron chest in the cellar that held the most valuable articles of the palace.

So, you can see where this is all going. Hradek went to the cellar to make sure the servants handles his curtains carefully and ka-blammo, they were gone. The governor hears about it and orders and investigation, all the servants deny having anything to do with it. Hradek says something about maybe we should all go check in those shops that the Jews keep, you know they're always stealing, blah blah. So, the search is on, through all the shops in the Ghetto, and they find the curtains with Enoch Altschul. Enoch is taken and beaten and brought before The Man. Enoch says that he can't admit why the curtains are in his house because he gave his word to a member of that very court that he'd not tell. Mysterious. Noble. More beating and torture. Finally, Enoch is told that by dawn if he doesn't spill the beans, his whole family will be hanged and the Ghetto will be stormed and destroyed. Not good. But, Enoch is a righteous man and did give his word so he wrestles with this. He sits in his jail cell all night and begs for divine intervention. He sleeps a bit finally and wakes suddenly, seeing, or thinking he's seeing, Rabbi Judah Loew who tells him everything will work out.

Czech Shul: In your face, playah hatahs.So, Enoch keeps his cool, even as he is being led out to his own execution.With only minutes to spare, Hradek finally confesses that he stole the curtains to pay his gambling debts, pawned them to Enoch promising kind treatment to all Jews in the Ghetto if he kept the transaction secret but that he'd also had a vision of the Rabbi overnight and knew he had to come clean.

To commemorate the miracle, Enoch Altschul asked the Jews of Prague to celebrate on 22 Tevet. Which brings us up to today. Shehechiyanu.

 

As I stood with the other congregants, I felt an old tension wash over me. I was so glad to be here, so proud that there was something traditional that would soothe my yearning. But as things got started, I noticed a kind of orthodoxy that has always turned me off. I have been just as turned off by the appropriation of tradition by outsiders, but at least they have sense of distance, and maybe even a little irony. But here I was with my people, and I couldn’t have felt more alone. They were just a little too hardcore for me, or maybe I was a wimp who had once abandoned them, here now with now my tail between my legs. As a Jew who grew up mostly secular, my return to Judaism over the past twenty years has been always walking a precarious line between looking for tradition and keeping a critical open mind. But I wasn’t at synagogue. I was taking archery lessons from Peter the Red, a Queen’s Archery Champion in the Eastern Kingdom of The Society for Creative Anachronisms.

There were a number of other folks there, who like me were a fairly un-athletic bunch. Their life long interests have usually kept them out of the sun and certainly not the people one imagines being proficient with a deadly weapon. Peter’s yeoman, an orthodox Jew by the name of Yaacov ben HaRav Eliezer was quick to point out to me where I had not found my correct anchor (a tooth that you press down with your index finger as you pull the bowstring,) and while he spoke his tztitzes blew in the wind.

But while Peter and Yaacov were gracious patient hosts, for most of the morning I had the strange feeling of not belonging. It’s a feeling I have long grown accustomed to. From the days in middle school when walking down the halls was like a walk across hot coals, to today if I am standing around a party when everyone is watching and talking about the football game on TV. More importantly it's how I've felt in many religious contexts, a believer whose not quite observant enough, or with my wife's family on Christmas, the tree looming over me like the inquisition. At archery practice with folks whom I know I share more than a passing interest in things like fantasy and role-playing, there was no friendly banter, no winking knowledge that what were doing was both awesome and awfully goofy. The nicer I tried to be, the more marginalized I felt. They could tell I just wasn’t one of them.

I hadn’t sewn my own quiver.

Recently I attended a science fiction convention in Boston, and looking at the list of events I was already feeling out of my depth. At what part of my geek life had I missed the transformation of dice wielding friendly misanthropes into polyamourous, leather clad martial arts experts? More importantly when did I stop being cool amongst the uncool?

I asked the science fiction author Jay Lake his thoughts on fan culture and he suggested my experiences are not that common: “One of the interesting characteristics of both the writer and fan communities within SF is a very strong social value placed on inclusion. When you see exclusionary cliquishness, it either arises from competition – the Star Wars people arguing with the Star Trek people, for example – or insecurity.”

But like any community with strong internal bonds, how easy is it for a newcomer to feel a part of? For two years or so I wrote a science fiction/fantasy book review column for the Boston Globe. I was pretty proud of it. Since sf/fantasy got so little coverage in the mainstream press, I only reviewed books I thought I could recommend, even as I was critical of them. After reviewing two books that I was quite fond of but suggested that too much science fiction is not character driven, I was lambasted on the now defunct, but extremely popular blog of the book review site Emerald City, which suggested that I was just one of those reviewers that hates science fiction. I felt like I had been kicked out of a club because someone in the locker room saw my circumcised penis.

A certain defensiveness, coupled with a kind of group aspergers, has forced many fans into a cliquishnesses that far exceeds anything I saw with cheerleaders growing up. In fact, while most cliques can have a mean streak built in, what I am seeing amongst geeks is a kind of righteousness due to their culture having been appropriated by mass culture: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft, and even the popularity of Battlestar Galactica and the science fiction pretensions of Lost. I feel the same righteousness, a sort of chosenness that I am also part of the tribe, even though I don’t always worship at the temple. With most groups there is a shared orthodoxy that keeps the members bound together. It’s not enough to attend services. To really belong you have to agree the earth was created six thousand years ago or that exclusion of Tom Bombadil from the Lord of the Rings film was a grave sin.

Paul Di Filippo, a beloved and prolific science fiction author has had years of experience with fans and conventions. I confessed to him my feelings of inadequacy and he counseled me: “Anyone can plunge into the midst of any SF convention wholeheartedly and warmly embrace the most oddball geeks, nerds, dorks, pointdexters or otakus. You just have to cultivate your inner fan, and see past the superficial tics and mannerisms to the intelligent, entertaining people beneath.”

Like my religious life, my geek life has me torn in two directions. I long for tradition, to be with those that understand the sacred texts, can argue about the finer points, and embrace ritual and custom. But I also need a little distance, a little critical reflection, and maybe a little humor that sometimes, from the outside, this stuff can look a little goofy, and many folks are skeptical, if not downright atheists (one of my best friends is still oddly irritated that I like fantasy and comics books). But I will still attend. I will carry my tattered Dungeons Master Guide into the holy places with pride and hope that I can be accepted, even as go home to my gorgeous (and not Jewish) wife who will insist I put down my polyhedral dice before I roll around with her.

* Cross-posted at Mystery Theater

New Israel Fund's Project for African Refugees could use our support. I know you know, but the details go something like this: Post-Shoah, Israel was a drafter of the UN Convention on Refugees, which, in short, states that any refugee or anyone looking for asylum won't be returned to a country where they face danger. So, even though Israel help draft this and signed off on it, there's no real policy in Israel in terms of how refugees are handled. Which is bad at any time, but in the last few years, with militia groups joining military units in Sudan and subsequently killing people in the Darfur region, and said people looking to find a safe place to simply live, a ton of these people fled to Egypt, but faced racial/religious persecution there. So, what would you do? Sneak into Israel. So, well, you can see where this is going.

Consider supporting: NIF's work for African refugees in Israel.So, at the moment, there are about two thousand Sudanese refugees in Israel and about a third are from the Darfur region, and about another two thousand people hoping for asylum from other African countries. And, they need some help. (Read the NIF's position paper which explains all of this in greater detail here.)

The NIF organized a coalition involving ARDC (African Refugees Center), ASAF (Organization for Psychological Aid to Refugees and Asylum-Seekers), Physicians for Human Rights, various student organizations, Tel Aviv University Clinic for Refugee, Amnesty International and the Hotline for Migrant Workers.

Watch a video here. Hit the site, click around, see ways to get involved on this issue, and consider supporting this important organization with a financial donation.

 

The Magic City: Billings, MontanaOne of the great, underrated things about living in New York is meeting all those people who come from everywhere else. Not that Gotham natives aren’t a barrel of monkeys, but it’s cool that someone always seems to have a different frame-of-reference, a different slice of life about where they came from, which is my way of explaining why I am sharing this story about my hometown, Billings, Montana.

Growing up, I always knew I was going to move on from the Magic City and live in urban environs that provided access to professional sports, even if the Knicks don’t count. I wasn’t one of those “I gotta’ get the hell out of here” kids, I had a great time and loved coming of age in Billings. During the seventies and eighties, it was a laid-back town, seemingly equal parts live-and-live and frontier stoicism. I was naïve, of course, but you didn’t really hear racial slurs that I soon found in the big city. Partially, this is because we didn’t have a large population of “the other” (and I am sure Native Americans would beg to differ), but in my little world people were generally friendly and I kid you not, I never heard the anti-everybody-else vitriol that I soon found commonplace. I remember my mom once said that part of the reason she didn’t want us raised in her Irish Philadelphia enclave was because she didn’t want us exposed to that sort of ugliness.

I went off to college at Marquette University and was shocked to find out that a good number of white suburban kids used the N-word in everyday conversation (I told you I was naïve.) It really bothered me, and although it wasn’t the majority of kids, I was still astounded that so many people my age seemed to view the world through the lens of the Dixiecrat South. I moved to New York City in 1993 and lived/worked in the Bronx as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. It amazed me how much of an isolated afterthought the kids in the Bronx were and how little respect the entire community earned (again, naïve, but getting better.) Not that Andrews Avenue was filled with choirboys (although there were more people who truly sought salvation in the neighborhood churches than I saw in 16 years of Catholic school), but I was still taken aback when a cop pulled me over, asked me where I was buying drugs, then mocked the fact that I chose to live amongst “these people.”

  Christmas of 1993, I headed back to Billings and learned that there had been a string of race-baiting events throughout the year perpetrated by a group of white supremacists. It started with some racist fliers on car windows at an MLK Day celebration. Other crimes included the destruction of some headstones at a Jewish cemetery, harassing phone calls to Jewish leaders, skinheads ominously standing in the back of a mass at the small African Methodist church and finally spray-painted swastikas and “Die, Indian, Die” on a local woman’s home. The town reacted quickly, as 100 locals, including members of the Painters Union, got together at dawn one morning and repainted her house.

The reaction spurred the thugs to step it up. They threw a piece of cinder block through the window of a six-year-old Jewish boy’s room because had the gall to set up a celebratory menorah. The boy’s parents contacted the Billings Gazette, and the editors decided to utilize the community in fighting back. They printed a full-page menorah and urged locals to hang in their homes and businesses. Hundreds followed suit, which led to more anti-Semitic vandalism. If memory serves, they even threw a brick through the window of my alma mater, Billings Central Catholic High.

The community takes action: Not In Our Town Billings, however, didn’t back down. Police Chief Wayne Inman urged more and more citizens to put up the menorahs, saying, "Visible signs of support for the Jewish community have to increase, not decrease. For every vandalism that is made, I hope that 10 other people put menorahs in their windows." At its peak, some 10,000 citizens had menorahs in their windows, more than 10% of the population. Could you imagine if one million New Yorkers had united in a cause like this after one of the notorious incidents of the time?

I remember walking home from midnight mass on a wintry night and seeing all of the Christmas lights, which made the menorahs glow all that much brighter. My parents and my three brothers took the long way home and house-after-house had taken the time to hang up a page from the newspaper in solidarity with the local Jewish community, which I am guessing might have been 1,000, tops. We took note of the ones hanging in the houses of our Jewish neighbors, the Weissmans and the Fleets (more or less the only Jews I knew until I moved to New York.)

It was incredibly moving. I was one of those staunchly Gen X kids, skeptical of what the “power of the people” could really accomplish and how things never change. I was wrong.

For one holiday season, Billings was the most amazing place on Earth.

As the website says: The community made an unmistakable declaration: "Not in Our Town." Since then, no serious acts of hate violence have been reported in Billings.

All these years later, it is still one of my favorite Christmas memories, even if I will probably never call Billings home again.

And it’s a story I love telling the sophisticated urbanites this time of year.

* * *

Stopping the hate: Citizens put these in their windows Unfortunately, there is one ugly dénouement to the story.

In its infinite sappy wisdom, Hollywood decided to turn the inspirational story of community activism into a schlocky movie-of-the-week. For starters, they decided to call it Not in This Town, perhaps because they didn’t want to pay royalties to the “Not in Our Town” movement that sprung up to help communities respond to acts of hate. Or, maybe they didn’t do their homework.

Either way, it’s more or less what you’d expect on the Lifetime network. Adam Arkin plays the big city Jewish doctor who moves to Billings to get away from the urban ugliness and be left alone to fly-fish in peace. Kathy Baker plays his shiksa wife who can’t believe this is happening in Utopian Billings. She won’t be denied and starts meeting the uplifting minorities culled right out of Hollywood P.C. casting 101. The simple black house of worship becomes a packed mega-church with a choir right out of Forrest Gump, the native Americans no longer live on the poverty-stricken Crow reservation and invite her to commune with the spirit world or some such, and of course, the coup de grace that brings Arkin out of his shell, is when she finds a Holocaust survivor who tells of what happens when communities look the other way.

All nice in theory, but in practice, it was a simplistic Oprah-friendly treatment that doesn’t do much to honor the incredible events in the first place.

And I am pretty sure they filmed it in California, because Lord knows, Billings didn’t need any of that residual Hollywood income.

The only thing that kept it from making viewers throw a brick through the television is the unintentional comedy of the actor chosen to play the leader of the white supremacist group. You guessed it, Ed Begley, Jr. Watching a man who powers his house with his own waste gather people around a campsite (they sit on hay bales, natch) and seriously discuss “elements” destroying Billings provided enough comic relief that Not In This Town is actually worth a watch.

If the average Nazi skinhead were as frightening as Begley in his L.L. Bean getup…well, there wouldn’t have been much need for the newspaper menorahs in the first place.

* * *

My hope for you this season is that someday everyone gets to experience a powerful moment of community activism at some point in his or her life. I guarantee it will move your spirit.

Oh, and if Hollywood comes calling, you simply say: not in our town.

Happy holidays.

p.s. Here is the website of the Not in Our Town organization.

Liar, liar: No big deal, right?I think about lying a lot. More than I should, I'm sure. I don't really know why lying, even very minor infractions, bothers me so much, but it really does. Despite knowing people who can slip a fib out without a second thought, I take my tales really seriously and really have moral and karmic stuff I go through when faced with situations where a lie would save my ass. So, when it comes to one of those "hurt my friend's feelings and tell her that, actually, I do think her cousin is an insufferable douchebag" or "get out of it somehow and avoid any bad mojo between us" it's a tough call, but it's also kind of fascinating to me.

We know the white lie is permitted, halachally. It's an untruth or partial truth without any negative intention attached to it. Yes. Right.

We read the story in our Torah about even HaShem delivering a white lie, in conveying Sarah's reaction to the news that she'd be a mother at her advanced age, all to preserve the shalom bayit, the peace of home, between Sarah and Abraham. Yes. And, we know that in many cases, a white lie is even required of us.

In the Talmud, when Rabbi Eliezer was busted when the Man thought he was a heretic, he saved his butt with a kind of white lie I rather admire people with the ability to whip out: Doublespeak. (Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 16b-17a). When asked how he could occupy himself with such foolishness, he said something like, "I acknowledge the Judge as being right". He knew he was referring to HaShem of course, not the judge standing there accusing him of being a heretic, but the judge bought his answer and felt that because Rabbi Eliezer acknowledged his judgment/authority as being right, he was acquitted.

This might be horrible to admit, but I'm telling you, I really have to hand it to people who can pull out that kind of thing. I don't know if I could be so clever under pressure. I was in a situation today that led to just such a moment. Well, not threat of being stoned to death for being a heretic, but a situation that could likely be smoothed out easiest with a white lie.

But, the struggle begins at precisely that point, you see, for on the other side of that thought is the thought that maybe a white lie, or at least too big of a white lie, does more harm than good. Could it be that it has the potential to enable a person or condone their behavior rather than at least planting the seed of thought that they aren't the most polite, reasonable, etc. Or, that perhaps the white lie told is too easy of an out and by relying on it, we are somehow diminishing ourselves, or not fully standing up for what we believe in or cannot tolerate? And, if that's the case, what about the internal sense of peacefulness-- meaning, if we lie to spare feelings or to get out of a situation without any trouble, are we really creating peace or are we simply saying that making a situation with another person peaceful is more important than our own peace of mind and self-care?

It's a fine line, I suppose, and a line we can only set for ourselves based on our own conscience and comfort levels. Naturally, this wouldn't and couldn't apply to every white lie, but it wouldn't hurt to check in with yourself the next time you're popping off a little white lie and think about why you're really telling it. Because while we defined a white lie as a lie or a half-lie without any negative intention attached to it, it's worth remembering that applies to ourselves just as much as the people around us.

Many times, leaving events and seeing buffets being shoved into the trash, I've thought, Someone ought to start an organization to bring this food immediately to people who need it.

Table to Table: Waste not, want not, yo.Enter Table to Table, a food rescue organization in Israel that harvests excess fresh food from caterers, cafeterias, manufacturers, grocers and farmers and delivers the food to soup kitchens, food pantries, senior citizen centers, homeless shelters, women's shelters and meals-on-wheels-type organizations. And, their website is filled with useful information like hunger statistics in Israel, links to additional related resources, and the story on their wonderful programs, such as their b'nai miztvah project ideas section, volunteer opportunities, Hametz collection initiative service, and a program I rather like: Project Leket. If you are heading to Israel (or are there already), Project Leket allows volunteers to sign up to go with members of this organization to pick fruit, knowing everything picked goes to those who need it the most. biblically inspired, of course, in Deuteronomy. Of course, if you don't happen to be in Israel, you can always give tzedakah here, volunteer with the New Jersey organization or the similarly-named and -purposed, (but unaffiliated) organization in Iowa City.

 

 

 

Jewcy!: You don't look a day over one.Here's a little reading on Jewcy birthdays from RitualWell and a whole buffet of reading about birthdays from Chabad. And, enjoy these upstanding young men hoeing down and these pronounciative (not a word, but it is now) folks howling in celebration of Jewcy's birthday (wink), or this hilaaaaarious Israel Eurovision birthday tribute. Oh dear.

In any event, happy first birthday, Jewcy!

Kristallnacht: Night of broken glass. Today, November 9th, is the commemoration of Kristallnacht –the night of broken glass. On this day, in 1938 the broken and vandalized windows of homes, shops, synagogues and schools throughout Germany became a terrible symbol of the great shattering that was to become the Holocaust. I woke up this morning with this image in my mind: a street strewn with heaps of broken shards of glass, empty except for one woman walking slowly, looking at the broken pieces reflecting a bright blue sky. She is pregnant. In some ways this image is related to the historical date, to this week’s Torah portion - and to what’s happening right now in the lives of the people who are a part of the Storahtelling community– so I wanted to share a brief thought that elucidates this haunting image and will hopefully be meaningful to all of you who are, in so many ways, part of my family.

Rebecca is the pregnant woman, and as this week’s portion, Toldot – Origins, begins, she is pregnant with twins. These are the first twins in history, and they are kicking in different directions, and Rebecca is confused and troubled – what is happening inside of her? She asks the first existential question in the Torah – ‘if this is so – who am I?’ And she is the first person in Jewish history to seek an answer, to investigate life’s challenges – so she goes to find God. The answer she receives is a complex blessing: she will become the mother of two boys, and they will become the fathers of two nations at war, two opposites who will fight for supremacy.

Jacob and Esau are born into struggle. The younger baby grabs the heel of the older one, already trying to grab the birthright, and so he is named ‘the heel grabber’ or Jacob. The older one, Esau, as told from the eyes of Jacob’s descendents, is marked as a hairy hunter that defies the gentle pastoral life of the Semitic household, he is ‘other’.

Fast forward to what Jacob and Esau will come to symbolize to future generations. In Judaic mythology, Jacob becomes Israel, and Esau becomes Edom, and then Amalek– later on identified as the Roman Empire, becomes Christianity, and Nazi Germany. Rebecca is walking down a street strewn with the fragments of war created by her children, then and now. What a haunting and hopeless image.
So what of the fixing? How do we avoid this grim prophecy? Where is the hope of healing and repThe Holocaust: Is there a way to heal this historical pain?air?

Perhaps the hope for repair, like this story of despair, is inside each one of us. I am reminded to read this saga the way we have read so many other biblical tales at Storahtelling – as a mythic allegory that is meant to give us insight into our inner struggles and that enables us to contemplate the difficult but basic truths of our lives. Each of us is Rebecca, carrying conflict and twin desires that sometimes clash, hurt others and hurt ourselves. And we are each Jacob, and Esau, and the sum of their struggle. If we read this passage as an invitation for personal growth, not as a historical and political justification of struggle, perhaps we can heal the historical pain by remembering and honoring the past, and we can commit to reducing the hatred between us that impacts our future.

Nazi and Jew, Israeli and Palestinian, Democrat and Republican, militant Muslim or fundamentalist Christian– and many others that are against each other in the fight for survival and supremacy: can the story be told differently? Can we tell this inherited story differently to as many people as we can? Can I recognize this story inside of me? Who is my Jacob, grabbing the heel of my inner Esau, where is my disquiet, what is the seed of my struggle to survive – and how does this stop me from being at peace with myself and other people?

So, yes, this is beginning to sound like the D’var Torah… a reflection that ends with a call to action, a charge. Writing to you – friends and family members of my Storahtelling tribe- I am reminded that this is precisely the core of sacred work: our goal is not to simply clarify and dramatize obscure biblical images but to actually address the burning issues of the day, to ‘translate’ the deeper meaning of this, or any other biblical story, into the inner life of each of us.

This weekend I will be presenting Maven at a synagogue in Boulder, Colorado, telling the tale of Jacob and Esau’s birth (and I think I just got my opening story..), and tonight Brian Gelfand, Naomi Less, Jake Goodman and Emily Warshaw will lead a Ritualab for the Tribeca Hebrew community in downtown NYC– focusing on the story of Rebecca’s search for meaning. At the same time, a team of Storatellers will premier the newest version of our show ‘Becoming Israel” in Philadelphia— about Jacob wrestling to become Israel. This show, marking Israel’s 60th year of independence asks some hard questions – how does this legacy of wrestling effect our modern identity and affiliation with Israel? Under Annie Levy’s directorial hand, Franny Silverman, Shawn Shafner, Melissa Shaw and Katie Down will become Israel this weekend – and I hope you will all see this show as we will begin touring soon. And as soon as Shabbat ends, Naomi Less and Jake Goodman are heading down to Nashville to represent Storahtelling at the UJC General Assembly —a whole other kind of struggle… what a packed weekend—one of many— where we get to share this new vision of the power of story with a world thirsty for new visions.
Israel: When will this struggle end?

So, on this very personal note –thank you all for joining me on the journey of fixing the broken glass of our heritage. I hope we all get to walk down the streets and see the reflected vision, in each shard, of a bright future, where Jacob and Esau, hand in hand, are walking down the same street, and behind them, a smiling Mother of All – ‘the mother of the sons is happy’ as it is written in the Psalms.

It's almost Shabbes. My house is clean, my dinner is ready, my cat and I are all ready to get our nefesh on. I love Shabbes. I love the idea of it, I love the practice of it, and I'm both okay with and in love with the many ways people find Shabbes for themselves. Or how people and Shabbes find each other at various life-stages, as a Rabbi I know likes to say.

Shabbat: How do you make it your own? Some are completely Shomer Shabbes. Some stay in and light Shabbat candles and have a family meal. Some have a family meal, light the candles then all go their different weekend directions. Some people light candles and hang around the house and rest for the week ahead. Some go to shul. Some keep Shabbes unless there is a special circumstance or event. Some take a small time out. Some take the full 25 hours. And sure, some don't mess with any of it.

And, in my book, that's all okay because maybe what makes Shabbes the time of re-nefesh (my English tag word for "re-ensoulment") is a matter of doing your heart's desire. It's perfectly okay to keep shomer Shabbes, and it's perfectly okay to not observe Shabbes at all and whatever lies between, if your kavanah and action-ideas don't, can't or won't line up. Don't get me wrong. I think Shabes is a good idea, I do. I've done Shabbes just about every way there is to do Shabbes and I've found meaning each time. I try, really try, not to get caught up in too many have-to's and just let my Shabbes evolve with what feels right year after year. (Which is not to say I don't do many of the activities traditional of Shabbes, just that I really feel my way through Shabbes and check-in with myself to do what feels honest and right to me. Because, though I see the value and stability of rote, I can't help but feel like a fraud when I find myself in rote mode. Another post for another day. I digress.) I keep Shabbes, and small rituals I have ebb and flow and change and evolve over time and I like that. I like feeling like there is room to evolve, I like putting activities on the Does-this seem-Shabbesey?-Is-My-Heart-in-It? Scale as a sort of finer filter on what I do and don't do on Shabbes.

For example, officially there is a prohibition from sewing on Shabbes. Well, there is the work prohibition, and once upon a time, and still to some now, sewing is a means of making a living. So, sure, yes, best to take the day of rest off from sewing! But, what about to the busy professional with little personal time who loves to sew? What if sewing is a family tradition, passed from one generation to the next? Wouldn't sewing on Shabbes make someone, then, think of fond memories and be refreshed with an activity that s/he takes the time to savor? Wouldn't, then, sewing be feeding the very soul we're allowing to glow on Shabbes by feeding it something with such deep, personal meaning? Isn't that more meaningful than not sewing in that case? (This very issue is addressed far more in-depth in one of my favorite books, Jewish With Feeling by Rabbi Zalman Schachter.)

How does he get his nefesh on?: Holmes doesn't roll on Shabbos.Part of Shabbes is re-ensoulment. A large part. Reconnecting to yourself to be the best you that you are capable of being so you are fueled to make the world as good of a place as you are capable of making it. Isn't there some sacredness in that?

I found a few of these quotes that I thought were interesting, all collected on RitualWell (read the whole collection there, if you like, they're really lovely), and collected from various female leaders within the Jewish community that seem to be in the same vein of what I'm getting at, but this one in particular, I really liked:

"As someone who is committed to social justice, to ending oppression, I often feel that there is too much to do, too little time to fix it all, that I can't stop yet...And then Shabbat comes and with its arrival twenty-five hours in which I get to notice how beautiful the world is, how perfect it is, and that there is nothing that I need to do in that moment to change it. I am reminded that it is crucial for me to stop, to rest, to celebrate the beauty of the world, the richness of my relationships with family, friends and G-d. A time of noticing what is already right and whole and good rather than what isn't. And with that deep knowing, that inner quiet, I can go back out for the rest of the week and fight like hell."

And, speaking of Shabbes. It's upon us and I have candles to light. Shabbat Shalom. Peace of re-ensoulment, however you find it.

Smooth move, Halle Berry. Whatevs. Not the end of the world. It was a dumb thing to say, but, her blurt-first-think-later comment does bring up a point than really can't be emphasized enough because most of us have been guilty of it once or twice. We like to think it's a thing non-Jews say, but we do it to ourselves all the time. Whatever am I talking about? I'm talking about saying someone "looks" Jewish.

Jewish People: Doing Shabbes. What's the big deal?

It always bugs me when I hear it. One a reality-tv show not long ago, a man said he hoped to meet a "Jewish-looking" woman to date. And, of course, I had to talk back to the television C'mon, dude! Shame on you! What the fuck does that mean?, knowing full well what he meant. If you're like me, it stings the ears a bit because not only does it say we all look alike, but it somehow discounts the Jewishness of anyone who isn't Ashkenazim.

I say all of this knowing I'm walking dangerously close to launching a race v. religion battle discussion. If you ask me, we're a peoplehood; Jewish is a soul-identity in my thinking. But, that's not where I'm going. I'm talking about race issues within Judaism and tweaking our word choices to make sure we include all Jews. I'm talking about how a friend of mine gets her feelings hurt when people look at her blonde hair and tell her to her face she looks like a shiksa and can't possibly be Jewish. About how people tell me I'm tall for a Jew. How a friend of mine who is Japanese-American and Jewish has people (Jewish and non) argue with him and tell him it's impossible that he is Japanese and Jewish when he "looks more Japanese than Jewish"... or how a friend of mine who is African-American and orthodox gets, similar, but even stranger comments and questions. (The Jewish Press ran a story that brought some of her "adventures in disbelief" to mind back in January.) Oy. These tiny little ideas floating around escape in tiny comments that make our words exclusionary and suggests these ideas, actually, aren't so tiny at all, but are rather large and problematic.

Jews: We're everywhere!

Quickly, let's review (though I think this info is slightly out of date) JewFAQ's very brief rundown on the difference between Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrachim. Then, let's review further sub-divisions based on our specific personal regional diaspora spots, or hit this Judaism by Country list. Here is a really great resource, a very short, but information-packed rundown on the world's Jewish population. (By the by, other sites you might want on your radar are The American Sephardi Federation and Justice for Jews.)

I know, I know, but it bears repeating. Refreshers never killed anyone. And, yes, it's an Ashkenazim majority of worldwide Jewry at the moment, but we really have to chose our words to include all the members of our peoplehood.

 

 

 

This week we read the parsha of Lech Lecha and it begins: Va'yomer Hashem el Avram lech l'cha mai'artz'cha...("And Avram understood the message of HaShem to be: 'Go for you (for your benefit) from your land...')[12:1].")

Hmm: Which way should I go?

I get way creeped out when I hear people say that HaShem told them to do anything. Just this week, I'll admit, I was discussing this concept and dismissed it as ridiculous. It, to me, denies the heartful compassion and innate intellectual ability we develop as human beings. Or does it? It might be easy to translate this part as HaShem told and often that is precisely how it gets translated. But... okay, follow me a minute as I sort of unpack this one.

Okay, sometimes when something is on our minds, you know how it is suddenly everywhere you look? I call it synchronicity, some people call it random, meaningless coincidence and others call it being directed. And all are correct, I suppose, if we believe them wholeheartedly. So, maybe what some call synchronicity, others call divine direction, while others call hunches and chance. And maybe, thinking that way only reinforces the idea that G-liness is everywhere and in all things and in all actions, large and small, mundane and breathtaking. And, most assuredly, I must bear in mind, the next time I hear someone say they were told, that we all plug-in in our own way, and that acknowledging that heartful compassion and innate intellectual ability I referenced above, it's hard not to connect those very things to the source of the universe, no? I mean, there probably is something to be said for the "G-d is a verb" business, right? Stunning actions, by that rationale, spread sunny rays of the purest form of Source/G-d/G-dliness/Universe/Whatever all over the place. And maybe some of those rays of postive action translate to someone else as a sign, as a validation, as a signpost to someone else, and other places as a direct communication. Who is to say, really? Ya nevah know. We choose words and concepts that sit well within in and maybe it's just a mater of semantics...?

So, we don't really know what made our matriarchs and patriarchs do as they did. Perhaps strange coincidences, perhaps, unencumbered by so much stuff and ultra-busy lives, people generations and generations ago could listen to their own pure selves and really hear, and maybe it was understood that listening and acting upon clear signs or strong hunches was connected to honoring a divine place within themselves.

Food for thought. Food for thought.

Good Shabbes, almost!

Shabbat Shalom: However you roll.

These kids are so down with Shabbes that they made both the Shabbat Megamix and this other Shabbes rappy-dancey thing. Uh, I might be in Chicago, but, no I do not know these young men. Wait, check out these guys, too, with their almost Weezer-sounding version of Shabbat Shalom. Er, until the dance-remix part.Anyway, be on the lookout for any of these dudes, especially these Kiddush Crashers. Uh, what's up with the rabbi's son/daughter and Dungeons and Dragons part? Wait, it gets weirder--- behold Lazy Shabbos. (Oy, Shomer! What? Shabbos! is totally in my head now. Great.) Must be an inside joke. As for these guys, well, this is really pretty. And, this, well, this might be your bag if you're into dropping acid on Shabbes. Hey, whatever you're into to get your nefesh-time on, yeah? 

Anyway, hurry hurry go go-- it's almost Shabbes. Go do whatever you do. 

Shabbat Shalom!

And, that's the newsRabbi Avraham Shapira (Z"L) has died in Jerusalem and was buried at Mount of Olives. (Dig one of his books here.) Here, a Baltimore woman reflects on the life of Marcel Marceau (b. Moishe Mangel), who was the son of a kosher butcher who was killed at Auschwitz. The Carolina Center for Jewish Studies got a million bucks from a few mensches. Russian town of Dzerzhinsk held its first-ever bris, Jewish soldiers in Iraq get their lulav and etrog going just in time, the EEOC is suing a Reno Chevy dealer, alleging whopper discrimination against Jewish employee Jack Adler, Israel's national water company has opened its doors to the public during Sukkot for tours, MOTs and evangelical Latinos get down in the Sukkah and a flamenco dance troupe is kickin' it Jew-style in LA, Serbia prohibits neo-Nazi march, the Days of Awe go over really well in Ho Chi Minh City, and, and, and Bob Dylan walked into a shul on Yom Kippur in Atlanta.

 

 

You heard me!If you love this time of year (and accompanying holidays) as much as I do, you might find yourself feeling a good swell of Jewish pride, like this lady who reminds us it's good to be Jewish! I really, really, reeeeeeally hope this song catches on in a big way because it's so awesome.

Someone just forwarded this to me and I thought I’d toss it up here for anyone to whom it applies:Is China: Jewcy?

Hello,
My name is Karen and I work on a nationally syndicated public radio show called Weekend America (www.weekendamerica.org) aired on over 135 NPR stations. We are currently working on a segment about Jews from China who are living in America. We are looking for individuals and/or families who fit this profile and would be interested in sharing a bit of their story with us. If you know anyone or have an organization who may be involved with this community please feel free to either email me back or call me at (213) 621-4640.

Thank you very much for your time,

Karen Krausen
Weekend America 
www.weekendamerica.org

Last Shabbes two women (an elderly woman and her daughter) walked into a shul in Syracuse that a family I'm close to attends, and in the middle of the morning service, started heckling the rabbi, and a few moments later, launching into a full-on spew of anti-semitism, Mellypoo Gisbson-style, and then they started threatening to blow the place up, along with few other sites like, oh, the Dome of The Rock. Pretty lofty claims for a woman in her 70s to be making, no?
Step off, Hatahs: Magen David'll throw down (kindly and responsibly!) to defend his peeps!
When they (this family) told me just today about this, the first thing I thought was, "The women went into the shul? That doesn't make any sense. They came all the way to Syracuse from Georgia to talk shit? Who does that? Two women, one of them elderly, versus that huge congregation? Hello?" But, having personally experienced an attempted hate crime (I say "attempted" only because I was injured and not, say, killed, so I feel like I thwarted his plan) three years ago this fall, I know there isn't a ton of stability or logic or that "live-and-let-livedness" I'm so very fond of going on when it comes to bias-motivated actions.

As much as I wish building bridges and being a good person changes minds and notions, I know that's simply not true, unfortunately. There is little any of us can do to stop someone absolutely determined to commit an act of harm, really. Rabbi Sherman (who, btw, hilariously handles cell phones ringing mid-service better than any rabbi I've seen) told the Syracuse Post-Standard that the women initially seemed to be behaving normally, like the rest of the congregation, of course. They didn't bust in with signs, symbols and slogans and neon signs over their heads. Especially in such a large shul, not every face is familiar. And, I believe with all I have that it's important to go out of our way to make people feel welcome. There's no right answer here; we live with anti-semitism (and all sorts of other anti-) around us from time to time, we've all seen it on some level at some point, and usually our Jew-dar shrieks at us when something is wonky. Sometimes, but not always.

Last night, the local news report here reported Rosh HaShanah and Ramadan both getting underway and within four sentences, turned the program to security concerns. Oy.

So, this afternoon, I've been thinking about the best ways to strike a balance between welcoming new faces and building community while keeping our eyes open without (and this is key) without clouding our minds. It's probably, nay, totally impossible to be open and welcoming, scan the congregation for potential fanatics, make teshuva, enjoy time together, keep an eye on our kids/siblings/nieces and nephews/whatever, and listen to and trust our gut instincts without being judgmental. Impossible. There's no way. I don't know what the answer is; I don't know where the balance is. But, we are a people of wrestling with information and decisions, so it's something to roll around.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Or, the Golem will be dispatched, yo.
Many shuls have enlisted the help of extra security, which I think is the right move. Most places have security all year (mine does), which is also not a bad idea. And, oy, let me ask you something-- What is your shul's regular security guard's name? I'm embarrassed to admit, I don't know mine. Such a nice man, I chat with him as I come and go, but I've never once stopped and asked his name. Not very community-building of me, is it?

So, before we dash off the shul tonight and tomorrow, here's just a little something to think of. It's a pain in the ass to wait through security lines at shul, it's weird to have a stranger digging through your purse, it seems weird to have to deal with that before walking in, but let's all try to think less about the inconvenience and give a smile and a "thank you" to the (often under-appreciated) security guards in our synagogues at this time of year. Hokey, maybe, but thanks go a long way. And maybe if your shul employs year-round security a little introduction is a nice gesture of respect, of just plan decency that might be something to consider.

Sure, knowing a name isn't going to stop the unthinkable from happening, but it's a tiny stitch in looking after each other, and a very big part of being kind-hearted. So, yeah, maybe deep-down I can't help but think that positivity and living mindfully and kindly will win out in the end. Maybe so. And, maybe, there is also a balance to be found between being smart in a dangerous world and not letting threats derail us, or cause us to hid or dilute the things meaningful to us out of fear.

Wishing everyone a Jewcy, safe, fun and meaningful time in the coming days.

L'Shanah Tovah.

What's in a Name?: The Riviera Scarf, by AlloyNot too long ago, Cameron Diaz stumbled from her shining path with a fashion faux pas that took the form of a messenger bag. The olive green accessory bore a red star and declared "Serve the People" in Chinese lettering. Sounds nice enough, but oops. Unfortunately for Cameron, that was one of Mao Zedong's most famous political slogans, and the tote turned an innocent jaunt through Peru into a fashion (and PR) disaster. After all, most of us are familiar with the classic lyric from the Beatles song, "Revolution": But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow. Here's a general rule of thumb for public figures: If you don't know what it says, don't wear it. I have a good amount of sympathy for Cameron Diaz. I mean, shoot--I don't speak Chinese, either, and could easily have made the same mistake.

It's different when the same "mistake" is repeated again and again by large corporations who should (and do) know better. I realize that at this point, the ongoing popularity of the keffiyeh in fashion forward, alternateen circles is old hat--or old scarf, as it were--but that doesn't diminish my overwhelming sense of incredulity that yet another retailer is marketing this "breezy, global-chic" symbol of hatred and terror to tweens, teens, college students, and "young independents." Back in January, Urban Outfitters briefly offered and quickly assassinated what they called an "anti-war woven scarf." In March it was Ark Clothing with their "Arafat Scarf" (way to be upfront, guys!). Then we had Delia's who first called it a "Peace Scarf," but later changed its name to "Euro Scarf" in response to complaints and protest.

If You Like That: ...You'll Love These!Delia's, as it happens, is where this trend turns from annoying to disturbing. See, I realize that "radical chic" is nothing new. From Berkeley college students to British hipsters, the keffiyeh has been around the necks of wannabe-revolutionaries and misguided-mutineers for decades.

What's creepy is that the most recent marketer of the keffiyeh is Alloy. Why creepy? Because Alloy owns Delia's.

Now, I'm not really the paranoid, conspiracy-theorist type, but this is no mere coincidence. Having already gone through this with their Delia's brand, Alloy can't plead ignorance about the symbolism of said scarf. Alloy, a multi-faceted advertising, clothing, publishing, film, and television company, bills itself as "a widely recognized pioneer in nontraditional marketing." Nontraditional marketing, eh? I'll say. The company is calling its unique brand of keffiyeh the "Riviera Scarf," because, um, that's where all the terrorists go on holiday?

Oh, and by the way, Cameron: you got a "Get Out of Jail Free" card for the Mao thing, but sporting a keffiyeh is not gonna fly.

I can't decide if I had a spiritual experience while watching this, or if it gave me chills of horror...

I don’t think I’ve ever prayed for someone else’s downfall. At least, not in the specific. This is apparently reason number 589 that I wouldn’t really fit in at First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, where they pray for vengeance.
Dear God,: Please let my orthodontist get hit by a car. Love, Jimmy
Prayer for opponent's misfortune finds little support

Until last week, "imprecatory prayer" was not in many people's vocabularies.

But then Rev. Wiley S. Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, urged his supporters to use Psalm 109 to focus prayers directed at the "enemies of God" -- including the leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Drake was urging the use of imprecatory prayer -- prayers for another's misfortune or for vengeance against God's enemies. Now such prayer is the talk of blogs and letters to the editor.

The controversy flared Aug. 14, the day the Washington-based group asked the Internal Revenue Service to probe the tax-exempt status of Drake's congregation.

Churches, as tax-exempt organizations, are prohibited from campaigning for candidates. Drake had earlier issued a statement on a church letterhead endorsing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential candidate.

Drake told his supporters that he attempted to talk to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State about the issue. He cited a verse from the Gospel of Matthew that says "if your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you." Drake said his efforts were rebuffed.

"Now that all efforts have been exhausted, we must begin our Imprecatory Prayer, at the key points of the parliamentary role in the earth where we live," Drake wrote.

The article goes on to consult with various religious experts about what their faith tells them about praying for someone’s demise. Here’s what the rabbi has to say:

Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein, of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, said the kind of prayer called for by Drake is not "normative" in Jewish tradition.

"We ask God certainly to do justice and to bring those who are errant to justice, but what I would consider an imprecatory prayer is not normative in Judaism," he said. "There is a difference between saying, 'May the wicked be brought to justice,' and 'May John Smith be cursed.' When we start naming names, that takes 'prayer' to an entirely different level."

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It’s interesting to me that so often in the Bible there’s discussion of how bad things should happen to our enemies, but we’re not allowed to request it specifically. Why is this? And why do we even care of some guy is telling people to pray for other’s misfortune. Do we think God is up there going, “Well, if you say so…”? Doesn’t God have a reasonably good moral compass?

I think it’s clear that Wiley Drake is an asshat, but I’m still not sure why imprecatory prayer is so bad. I’m not particularly tempted to go out cursing people anyway, but I don’t see what difference it makes. If people want to let off steam by praying for Osama Bin Laden’s death, or even if they want to wish that their algebra teacher gets scabies…who cares?

Sometimes I like to close my eyes and try to imagine what I’d be like if I were a kooky feminist observant Muslim instead of a rockin’ feminist observant Jew. I would definitely subscribe to Muslim Girl instead of Lilith. I would cover my hair with neon purple hijabs instead of dying it purple the way I do now. I would probably kiss fewer boys (fewer, but not none). And where would I go for reliable sex education? Who would be the Muslim Dr. Ruth?

The last problem is now solved. Thanks to an awesome Salon.com article called Sex and the Married Muslim in which they interview Egyptian sexologist Dr. Heba Kotb. She has a popular TV show called “The Big Talk” during which she answers questions about sex and relationships for a huge Muslim audience. Here’s a little excerpt from the interview:

Heba Kotb: Will tell you how to get yours, girls
You've said you believe that by having more sex, married couples will please Allah. Why?

Whenever you have sex you get rewarded because you're avoiding the woman being prone to have sex outside of the marriage and vice versa. It's a way to please each other in our world and to please Allah.

Is the Quran concerned with female pleasure?

Yes, it is. The biggest chapter of the Quran is called "The Cow." There is a verse talking about the woman's rising pleasure. It's an order to the man to give the woman the right to have pleasure -- it orders the man to give the woman foreplay and also to get the wife to have sex repeatedly and to not wait for the woman to ask because sometimes she's too shy to ask.

You've blamed Egypt's high divorce rate on "bad sex." But why is the country stricken with "bad sex"?

I think that probably more than 80 percent of divorces in Egypt are from a lack of sex education. Sex is a taboo; it's not to be discussed or complained about. A lot of people didn't know that they could complain about sex.

Why is sex such a controversial topic in the Muslim world?

It's culture -- it's not Islam, whatsoever. Islam is a very liberal and progressive religion. It invites people to have sex, of course within the marital frame. Prophet Mohammed never showed any offense to anyone asking about sexuality. On the contrary, he responded to every single question. The thing is, the culture overwhelms this.

What do you think about the in-your-face American approach to sex and sexuality?

I'm totally against this. It's harmful -- sex loses its luster and its preciousness. God orders that sex remains precious, like a pearl -- it's not just for everyone. A balance has to be built: This is allowed, this is not allowed; this is halal, this is haram. Sex is one of the things that is forbidden before marriage and outside of marriage; on the other hand, it's allowed within marriage with a lot, a lot of freedom. This creates a balance. In the American approach everything is allowed -- you can have sex at any age, on any occasion.

Who do you think is having better sex -- Americans or Egyptians?

Well, I'm not a witness. [Laughs.] Believe it or not, I've been to several countries for various conferences and it's quite the same everywhere -- there are the same problems. I don't think one group is having better sex than the other, but there is great individual variation. Those who are open, clear with each other and confront the problems they are having are far ahead.

You have encouraged women to explore their bodies -- does that include masturbation?

The woman, by means of instinct, does not need masturbation. She's not like the man whatsoever. It's not a call of nature for her. So that's why I'm not very sympathetic with young women and girls choosing to masturbate. They're ruining their sexual future -- a woman has to remain blank until she gets married and by masturbating she's forming her sexuality.

I wish there was an Orthodox Jewish woman doing something like this. I’d do it except I bet I’d have to get married and wear a snood. No dice. I’ll watch, though.

So Park Slope has a little Nazi. A small, angry Nazi. I met him this evening. Returning from an unveiling at a Queens Cemetery, I was parking the car at 8th and Garfield. The little Teuton was crossing the street in front of Shul against the light and I gave him a gentle toot of the horn. He barked something about the procreative act; I leaned my head out the window of the car to inquire after his health and he said, in plain English, “There weren’t enough ovens to kill you. I’d like to finish you off.” I didn’t have too much time to think, so offered what I could to the dialogue. “Go to hell you little Hitler. Where’s your Nazi armband?” He said, “I wish I had an armband. I’d like to finish you all off.” (With an armband?) Anyway, I replied that he didn’t have the biological chops to complete the task. But my language was slightly more off color. I have to say, I remain amazed that someone went right from the “intersection to the ovens.” It seemed like an extreme move. Extreme. A Nazi. Imagine. Bucolic, urban idyll: Park Slope. I can see the posters in the Real Estate Offices now: “Great schools; Prospect Park; 5th Avenue Shopping; We even have a Nazi!” When I was student in Madison in the 80s, someone I once worked with said to me after hearing that I worked at a Jewish summer camp: “Jewish Summer Camp: What, do you teach the kids about gold and stuff?” That was benevolent Prairie antisemitism. This guy from tonight was either from Central Casting or a Rod Serling script. Either way, it was weird. I wish he could have really known that the reason I was driving around was because even the Rabbi can’t get special parking privileges in front of his own Shul. If only he knew–Jewish power is a myth! But little Hitler scurried away before I could explain. Next time…

He's also got The Secret: Bob Proctor is one of many "philosophers" to appear on The Secret DVD.By now you’ve read about the self-help phenomenon that is The Secret. You’ve probably heard that the book is #1 in its category on the New York Times bestseller list, and that the DVD is #1 on Amazon (with the book second only to the new Harry Potter). The Secret's cadre of experts has been featured on every major talk show, from Oprah, to Larry King, to NPR’s Talk of the Nation. Unsurprisingly, the media is fascinated by our country’s infatuation with a philosophy that insists you can get everything you’ve always wanted… simply by pretending you already have it.

That’s right, The Secret is, above all, about the power of positive thinking. Its central tenet is the law of attraction; according to Bob Proctor, one of the gurus on the DVD and in the book, “Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life…Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you.” OK, so this is nothing new. This is what self-helpers through the ages have always believed, it’s why they go around smiling their gooey smiles and inviting random strangers to meditation meet-ups and community kitchens—in order to attract other self-helpers to meditate and cook and self-congratulate with. You are what you seek: This is what Scientologists believe; what people take home from the Landmark Forum, what they learned from EST back in the day.

So what makes The Secret so different from all these “self-actualization” groups many of us think of as cults? It requires nothing of you. You need not spend anything beyond the cost of materials to reach your full potential--$34.95 for the DVD, $23.95 for the book—even less on Amazon. You don’t have to go to classes with people who annoy you, or fear being seduced into a pyramid scheme, or believe in Xenu, or force your bladder into submission during an overlong revival at some airport Hilton. The Secret fits perfectly into the lazy, thrifty hole in the soul of America.

It also plays into Americans’ beliefs in omnipotence and magical thinking. Who among us hasn’t believed they might be discovered while walking down Hollywood Boulevard, or made a billionaire by purchasing a Powerball ticket? Who doesn’t fantasize about instant success without effort? Transformation without perspiration—a total life makeover in one thirty-minute segment—that is the real American dream.

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